If some
person feels to suffer a bleeding problem, the doctor will ask about the
personal and family medical histories. It will reveal whether the person or his/her
family members, including women and girls, have bleeding problems. However,
some people who have hemophilia have no recent family history of the disease.
The patient will go through a
physical exam and blood tests to diagnose hemophilia. Blood tests are used to
find out:
·
How long
it takes for the blood to clot
·
Whether the
blood has low levels of any clotting factors
·
Whether
any clotting factors are completely missing from blood
The test results describe if the
person is suffering from hemophilia, and what type of hemophilia he/she suffers,
and how severe it may be.
Hemophilia A and B are
classified as mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the value of clotting
factor VIII or IX in the blood. The severity of symptoms can overlap between
the categories. For example, some people who have mild hemophilia may have
bleeding problems almost as often or as severe as some people who have moderate
hemophilia. Sever hemophilia can cause serious bleeding problems in babies.
Thus, children who have severe hemophilia usually are diagnosed during the
first year of life. People who have milder forms of hemophilia may not be
diagnosed until they're adults.
Bleeding problems of
hemophilia A and hemophilia B are the same. Only special blood tests can tell
which type of the disorder the person has. Knowing which type is important
because the treatments are different. Pregnant women who are known hemophilia
carriers can have the disorder diagnosed in their unborn babies as early as 12
weeks into their pregnancies. Women who are hemophilia carriers also can have
"preimplantation diagnosis" to have children who don't have
hemophilia.
For this process, women have
their eggs removed and fertilized by sperm in a laboratory. The embryos are
then tested for hemophilia. Only embryos without the disorder are implanted in
the womb.
No comments:
Post a Comment